'Enough is enough': Coalition MP calls for sheep export ban

Growing support: A protester outside the offices of Emanuel Exports in Perth on Monday.Credit:AAP

Political momentum is building to ban the live export of up to 3 million Australian sheep in coming months, after the $1.4 billion industry was hit with more evidence of horrific animal treatment.

The scandal-plagued sector has been under pressure to reform for years, but a bipartisan political push to take decisive action has come to a head after footage was leaked of a ship on which 2400 sheep were killed in heatwave conditions last year.

Former Turnbull government minister Sussan Ley publicly condemned the industry on Tuesday, saying it was time "to pick a date by which all live sheep exports must end".

Coalition MP Sussan Ley. Credit:Mark Jesser

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"Enough is enough with these ships of shame," she said, joining other Coalition MPs critical of the trade. "We can work with industry and farmers to make this happen."

Labor says it's now clear that the industry shouldn't have been established and has refused to rule out preventing ships from leaving the docks in the northern summer months from June to August if it wins the looming federal election.

In a sign of mounting pressure, the powerful National Farmers Federation said it was open to a summer halt, stating that, if animal welfare could not be guaranteed, it would consider a policy that could delay 60 ships a year and risk millions of dollars for its members.

"When we look at the history of the trade, the biggest issues have been around the July and August period. I do think we have to have every option on the table," federation president Fiona Simson told Fairfax Media.

"If it means that we can't deliver during the height of summer, then it means we might have to abide by that."

Fiona Simson, president of the National Farmers Federation. Credit:Jacky Ghossein

He ruled out a total freeze on live exports but said all options were open for other measures, including a summer ban, while calling for the immediate appointment of an inspector-general for animal welfare.

"If you were starting again, would you have a live export trade? Probably not," he said.

"I don’t know that we will ever meet community expectations and standards but to precipitously rid ourselves of the industry now would cause great harm to many rural producers and I think that would be a mistake."

Western Australia's Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan said she supported a summer ban despite the harm it would do to the industry that represents 75 per cent of the country's total live exports.

She followed WA federal Coalition MP Ian Goodenough, who issued a rebuke of the sector and warned support would grow within Parliament for an outright ban if livestock continued to be "subjected to cruel and inhumane conditions".

Labor MP Joel FitzgibbonCredit:Alex Ellinghausen

A summer ban would prevent 60 ships, carrying an average of 50,000 sheep, from leaving port, leaving 3 million sheep under a cloud, according to an analysis of peak historical shipping figures by Mecardo.

"If you were to ban travel for a quarter of the year, that is going to be a reasonable amount of sheep that are going to have to find a home and WA does not have that kind of demand locally," analyst Matt Dalgleish said.

He said the "mortality rate was extremely high" for Emanuel Exports shipments of live sheep during the northern summer months after they departed from Fremantle.

"But you can't just make a decision and hope that it all adjusts. If a ban isn't phased in, then that is when the livelihood of farmers and meatstock workers is at stake."

Mortality rate of Australia's live sheep exports for 2017. Credit:Mecardo

It is understood the Department of Agriculture's own investigation relied solely on the word of the captain and vet aboard the ship, raising questions about the veracity of its reports that found no breaches of the export code.

It found that, when high heat and humidity started to affect sheep, "individual animals identified as heat-affected or bogged were removed into alleyways near the ventilator".

Some of those "bogged" were found to be drowning in their own faeces and flesh, according to the vision obtained by Animals Australia, which claims that more than 1000 animals have died per shipment on 37 separate Emanuel Exports consignments since 2005.

WA Farmers Federation president Tony York said banning exports over summer was "the very last strategy" and priority should be given to having shipping routes modified and airconditioning installed on ships.